Weights and Martial Arts

In the summer of my freshman year of high school, I realized that to stay competitive in hockey, I needed to work out in the off-season.

My mother knew of a martial arts instructor who also did athletic specific training. I went there, and immediately was put to the test.

Not having previous lifting experience, we stuck mainly to manual resistance exercises, things like push ups, chin ups and a whole array of ab exercises.

However we also did basic weight exercises with manual resistance. To give a few examples: bicep curls with a pvc pipe; military press seated on the floor; manual resistance sit-ups.

All this laid the groundwork for what was to come next. The summer of my sophomore year my instructor purchased the Michigan University's football lifting handbook, which provided us with all the lifting exercises we could handle.

We would work out 3 times a week: Mondays and Wednesdays were for heavy lifting (e.g. squats, bench press, military press, bicep curls, etc.) and Saturdays were cardiovascular type exercises (running, boxing drills).

All lifting exercises were performed at the maximum weight we could handle, for 3 sets of 8-12 reps.

We would end each of these workouts to the tune of push-ups, sit-ups, and chin-ups to muscular failure.

The Friday exercises would usually consist of a run of 3 miles or more, a set of boxing drills, and then some sparring.

We used whatever weight equipment we could get our hands on, and there were usually about 3-6 of us training in an uptown studio apartment, but we all knew each other well and we enjoyed challenging each other and pushing each other to do more!

All the workouts were safe enough and I can't really recall myself or anyone else with us being injured. All said and done, mt senior year of high school I was 6'2 205lbs and 3.5% body fat! And all the while I earned my black belt in Kenpo!

I would highly recommend working out with a martial arts group. To practice martial arts at a high level requires speed, strength, and skill so a well informed martial arts instructor will make sure his practitioners are in good shape!